Procrastination is rarely a cost-free strategy. That is true when it comes to fixing Social Security—as much as the Obama administration and, even more forcefully, its allies on the left may wish to believe otherwise.

Discretionary spending, the part of the federal budget that is not on autopilot and is subject to annual appropriations, generally constitutes less than 40 percent of federal spending. Take out defense spending and that share drops to well under 20 percent.

If you programmed a computer to generate a speech laden with cliches; solemnly vowing to achieve the unobjectionable; and all but devoid of substance, it would have come up with something approximating John Boehner’s remarks.

Mr. Speaker, please don’t. Go ahead, if you must, and cut taxes. Slash spending. Repeal health care. I understand. Elections have consequences. But BlackBerrys and iPads and laptops on the House floor? Reconsider, before it’s too late.

START was the finish of a great few weeks for Joe Biden. A great few weeks for President Obama too but in a sense even better for Biden because so many of the successful initiatives were on the vice presidential to-do list.

President Obama’s tax deal offers him a relatively painless way to wriggle out of his most irresponsible campaign promise: to permanently extend the so-called middle-class tax cuts, the middle in this case amounting to 98 percent of households.

Some of the loudest howls of outrage over the new airport security rules emanate from those who would be quickest to blame the Obama administration for not doing enough to protect us if a bomber did slip through.

The predictably childish reactions of the left and right to the budget blueprint unveiled by the co-chairs of President Obama’s debt commission offer the president a chance to play a role to which he may be uniquely suited: the grown-up in the room.

I don’t know if there’s a hell, but if it exists, the Rev. Fred Phelps and other members of the Westboro Baptist Church deserve a place. In this world, their repulsive actions are shielded by the Constitution.

I am, as of this writing, 144 days away from never again being able to sleep soundly. That is when my 15-year-old daughter, as she delights in constantly reminding me, will receive her learner’s permit.